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MySQL creator: version 5.1 released with “fatal bugs”

MySQL 5.1 has been released, but MySQL cofounder Michael Widenius says that …

Sun has announced the official release of MySQL 5.1, a new version of the popular open source database software. Although Sun has declared that this version is ready for widespread adoption in production environments, MySQL creator Michael Widenius says that it has "fatal bugs" that seriously undermine the quality of the release.

The last major production release of MySQL was version 5.0, which launched in October 2005. MySQL 5.1 has been under development for a long time and includes some significant improvements such as a new plugin API, support for row-based replication, and table partitioning.

In a personal blog entry, Widenius describes some of the problems with the new features and warns users to exercise caution. He believes that it was irresponsible to release 5.1 in its current condition and says that it doesn't deserve the "generally available" (GA) mark that is used to signify production-ready MySQL releases.

"We still have 20 known and tagged crashing and wrong result bugs in 5.1 [and] 35 more if we add the known crashing bugs from 5.0 that are likely to also be present in 5.1," he wrote. "It's of course impossible to get all issues fixed, but we should at least have tried to ensure that all issues important to a lot of MySQL developers and MySQL users should have been discussed, fixed and/or addressed in a public manner! We should also never have a single serious crashing/wrong data bug in a GA release."

Widenius says it symbolizes MySQL release management

MySQL was acquired earlier this year by Sun, a move that raised some concerns about the future of the open source database. The acquisition eventually led to the resignation of David Axmark, one of the original developers who cofounded MySQL AB with Widenius in 1995. When he departed from Sun, Axmark cited his frustration with Sun's rules and said that he intended to continue contributing to the project on an informal basis. There were also widely-reported rumors that Widenius himself was thinking about leaving the company at roughly the same time.

Despite the alleged friction between prominent MySQL developers and Sun management, Widenius contends that Sun was not responsible for the failures behind the 5.1 release. He blames Mårten Mickos, the senior vice president of Sun's database group and former CEO of MySQL AB. According to Widenius, Mickos no longer treats quality as a priority and unilaterally chose a premature GA release date because "he needs something he can sell."

"I would like to point out that the current release is not something that can be said to be fault of Sun. The decisions to do a GA release was solely been made by the MySQL management in Sun," Widenius wrote. "We have changed the release model so that instead of focusing on quality and features our release is now defined by timeliness and features."

Widenius believes that a change in direction is urgently needed to ensure that future releases are managed better. In particular, he calls for a more community-driven development model and more consistent standards for evaluating whether code is ready for a GA release. He hopes that Sun will intervene and restructure the organization so that these problems will not plague future releases.